Mental Health Care Disparities Among Minority Populations

The evolution of mental health treatment in America has been a long and arduous road with many ups and downs. In many ways, attitudes towards the disease towards mental illness help shape the evolution of treatment. In addition, trends in treatment and cultural understanding of mental illness influence national policy. In Mad in American author Robert Whitaker discusses the mental health care system its history, evolution, and the current state of mental health care in America. Whitaker explores the ethnicity of practices and questions the safety and efficacy of psychiatric

According to the popular media report issued by CNN, latinos in general, have been struggling to find help for mental health issues amongst their ever growing population (Rodriguez, 2013). Even though Obamacare ensures affordable healthcare for 6 million latinos, it’s still not enough for the hispanic community who are suffering from mental illness to seek help (Rodriguez, 2013). The major fear in the latino community is the fact of being stigmatized when obtaining help from mental institutions and services (Rodriguez, 2013). Therefore, many community members refuse to seek help and the mental illnesses go unnoticed. And even when the mental illness are acknowledged, latinos are known for asking extended family members, the community, church leaders, and spiritual healers for help and treatment instead of admitting themselves at hospitals (Rodriguez, 2013). Many latinos feel apprehensive towards mental illnesses and therefore, searching for help seems like such a taboo in the community. Moreover, according to the National Resource Center for Hispanic Mental Health, Hispanics are a high-risk group for depression, substance abuse and anxiety. About 1 in every 7 Latinos has attempted suicide (Rodriguez, 2013). Therefore, this puts them more at risk because of the lack of efficient treatment and care for people suffering with mental illnesses in their community especially in this generation. Furthemore, many elderly Latinos in the population find this acculturation overwhelming

According to research Asian Americans experience disfranchisement among mental health care services. Research findings suggest that usual referral processes through School Base Mental Health Services (SBMHS) gatekeepers may still result in disparities in care despite equivalent access, with Asian Americans more likely to have needs unmet.

Disparities also affect Blacks, Latinos, and lower educated and low socio economic individuals more than whites. Not only individual population groups are affected but regional disparities have been identified causing alarm in mental health communities (Kim et al., 2013). The article examines multiply mental health service use disparities in the United States, yet specifically looked at regions in the South, Northeast, Midwest and West. Service use of mental health varied significantly by region. Over 250 different geographic areas were sampled for the research. The national priority for eliminating these disparities needs to be addressed to reduce this imbalance. How does the mental health community open up access across geographical areas of the country to services for the older racially and ethnically diverse clientele?

Skyland Trail is a nonprofit mental health organization founded in 1989 in Atlanta Georgia. Named one of the top mental treatment centers in the nation, Skyland Trail provides help for an arrangement of disorders ranging from schizophrenia to depression in adults. At least 82% of their clients have multiple co-occurring diagnosis (“History and Mission,” 2016). Unlike other treatment centers the facility focuses on holistic and evidence based treatment which is customized for each patient in the facility (“History and Mission,” 2016). The target population I would like to work with within Skyland Trail would be the minorities in the facility especially the African American clients. Working with the mentally ill during my undergrad it was alarming

A comparison of several studies are reviewed and have identified that variables such as: socio-economic status, cultural values, language proficiency, and discrepancies in mental health service utilization are barriers that the Latino community encounter in pursuing mental health services (Hong, Zhang, & Walton, 2014; Keyes, Blanco, Martins, Bates, Hatzenbuehler, & Hasin, 2012; Rastogi, Massey-Hastings, & Wieling, 2012; Polo, Alegria, & Sirkin, 2012; Shobe, Coffman, & Dmochwski, 2009; Sentell, Shumway, & Snowden, 2007). Via this literature review each variable will be examined.

A multicultural competent counselor refers to, someone who’s able to work efficiently with groups of students from culturally distinct groups (Thomas & Vines, 2008). Furthermore, culture competency plays a key role in how counselors diagnose and treat their patients from any background or culture. Surgeon General (2001) largely defines culture as a common heritage or set beliefs, norms and values. Culture can be applied to all groups of people but unfortunately; there are major mental health disparities amongst minority individuals compared to white individuals. According to the Surgeon General (2001), ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than their white counterparts. Additionally, minorities

The city of Virginia Beach is a growing city and like any other area in the world, they have mental illness concerns. In the city of Virginia Beach is a predominant white community with 68.2 % of the population identifying as Caucasian (Census Bureau, 2015). “Different cultural beliefs about mental illness may impact the type of treatment that is pursued and how mental illness is given and the success of management. Other cultures tend to think that mental illnesses, like depression, is caused by stress of everyday life, while Caucasians do not. They believe that it is more from loss of family and friends. For treatments, Caucasians tend to believe that medications are what makes things better. Along with medications, talking with their spouse of significant other helps more than talking to other individuals. When receiving professional help, Caucasians tend to see that speaking the same language is the most important thing in a health care provider, like many other cultures” (Jimenez, 2012).

Abstract: The article highlights the problem and the barriers that associated with recruiting older minority populations into mental health research studies. The main focus of this research is to inform the administrators and policymakers, the best way to care for the mentally ill and how to improve mental health service in older minority. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (2001) and Fellin and Powell, (1988), “the mental health services by older minority have been an important issues for congress, national institutes of health, and the numerous professional organizations, however, there had been no changes in the older mental ill population”. The low-income older minority populations are higher than middle class

Over the years, mental health researchers have become increasingly interested in conducting research pertaining to the utilization rates and the provision of efficacious services to ethnically and racially diverse populations (Sue & Sue, 1990). Furthermore, research has concluded that certain populations may utilize mental health services more than others. In particular, individuals from underrepresented and minority populations are less likely to utilize mental health services than other populations due to issues such as cultural mistrust, low socioeconomic status, religious orientations, and perceived stigmas and negative attitudes toward utilizing services (Thurston & Phares, 2008). Because of these challenges, research has suggested that a "service gap” develops. Thus, many individuals may be in need of services, yet refuse to seek help. This in turn may lead to many issues among diverse populations in regards to seeking mental health services (Cramer, 2009).

Mental health is revealed as a necessary element to health and competence of individuals and is the source for success to assisting family, community and society. Some of the possible common bias development at Jeff’s agency was that the negative comments made by some of the therapists about Latino clients. Also Jeff’s heard one of the therapists saying that she diagnoses most of her clients with personality disorders using MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) and none of the client are getting better do they actively give in therapy. Misdiagnosis can also take place from the biases of the therapists and labelling of ethnic minorities, which has been a focus of issue in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness from a variety

FMRS supervisors rarely assign black clients to white employees because employees express discomfort. In order to meet the needs of the mentally ill population discrimination drives the mental health application process. While a professional black male, who knows the appropriate language receives an application, receives an application, however, a single black mother endures many trips to the mental health facility. Yet, it is rare for a single black mother to receive a petition during the first request and many mothers do not return. Does the dangerousness play a factor in the decision? No. Race and profession determines whether a psychologist accepts the application. Furthermore, a denial from the psychologists translates into a denial

In the past, minority groups needs have been neglected in terms of mental health services (Sue & Sue, 2015). While the profession of counseling has come a long way, there is still much work that needs to be done, as can be seen with the WEAVE organization. While it is apparent that the organization has taken some steps in the right direction by having two counselors on staff who speak Spanish, there is still work that needs to be done. This organization does not appear to be addressing the needs of other minority groups or training their counselors on the needs of these groups. The statement that was made about how they didn’t offer training on multicultural issues because they assume this is done in counselor training, is worrisome, as

After reading about racially diverse populations I believe that the largest item that I noticed is not the actual mental health issues that are found in the population, but how they handle these issues differently. Every culture, race, or minority faces a set of issues outside of the norm in our society. Often it comes down to the individual and the type of care that they look for differing from others in their population. This care can be requested from a religious sect, from family only, or a variety of different manners. However, they commonly do not go directly to a mental health service first. This is problematic for many of reasons. It can be that they are brushed off by bias, they feel they have no support, or a variety of other reasons.

Indeed, though each edition of the DSM seeks to maximize multicultural awareness and sensitivity, several the still-existing symptom profiles of mental illness remain unrepresentative of sometimes-large cultural clusters, as in the case of—for example—Caribbean Ataque phenomenology . Other issues, such as the more-frequent diagnosis of schizophrenia amongst African-American patients and the infrequency of mood disorder diagnosis in compared to their White counterparts, similarly aggravate discussion on the validity of clinical judgement and diagnosis of those patients who belong to marginalized groups (Neighbours et. al,